Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical, high-altitude grassland, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, intermittent freshwater marshes, rural gardens, urban areas, and heavily degraded former forests.

As stated above, it has poorly developed alkaloid poisons in its skin that make it unpalatable to predators, but it still mostly depends on its body camouflage for protection.

Its main body is wood brown, with cream-colored stripes running down the length of its back (hence the frog's common name) and flanks that range from dark, smoky gray to inky black.

While hylids use the suckers on their toes to climb trees, the cream backed poison frog uses them to give it a good grip as it clambers through the leaf litter.

[citation needed] The cream-backed poison frog is native to the Altiplano Cundiboyacense highland region of the Eastern Cordillera in Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Meta Departments of central Colombia, at altitudes between 2,000 and 3,500 m (6,562 and 11,483 ft) above sea level.